Whose Country Is It, Anyway?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/05/27/BL2005052700424.html

Flushing Out the Story

By Howard Kurtz

So the newly declassified FBI documents showing allegations of U.S. guards abusing the Koran have made a huge splash in the media, right?

Uh, no.

There were only a few mentions of it on television yesterday. The big stories were "American Idol," Paris Hilton's soft-porn burger ad, Jacko, a guy threatening to jump off a bridge, the allegedly wounded Zarqawi, the Bush-Abbas sitdown, Bolton and more filibuster fallout. The Koran ? That was last week's obsession.

In other words, "Magazine Retracts X" is apparently a more compelling story line for TV than "Is X True?"

The New York Times and Washington Post (which owns Newsweek) fronted the new Koran allegations, but that was about it for prominent play.

Now I don't contend that these FBI papers, unearthed in an ACLU lawsuit, get Newsweek off the hook. Newsweek made a bad mistake. But you'd think they would be getting more attention.

Let's parse the wording. Newsweek erred by saying in its ill-fated Periscope item that a forthcoming military investigative report would cite an allegation of the Koran being flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo. That was wrong, and Newsweek's anonymous source backed off.

The FBI documents don't prove that these Koran incidents took place--indeed, it may be impossible to prove one way or the other. The papers simply say that detainees have alleged to FBI interrogators about a dozen instances of defiling the Koran since 2002 (some of which have been written about before). It's possible that the detainees are all making this stuff up. It's also possible that Newsweek's source was onto something, but just confused about which document said what.

In any event, after the pummeling that Newsweek took, this would seem to be moderately important news. But it's not being treated that way, except by a few newspapers. And most of the crowing takes place among left-wing and moderate bloggers.

The latest, from the New York Times: "An American military inquiry has uncovered five instances in which guards or interrogators at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba mishandled the Koran, but found 'no credible evidence' to substantiate claims that it was ever flushed down a toilet, the chief of the investigation said on Thursday.

"All but one of the five incidents appear to have taken place before January 2003. In three cases, the mishandling of the Koran appears to have been deliberate, and in two it was accidental or unintentional, the commander said, adding that four cases involved guards, and one an interrogator. Two service members have been punished for their conduct, one recently."

The Nation's Ari Berman gets right to the point: "No sooner does Newsweek retract its Koran desecration story then a flurry of news reports attest to just what Newsweek seemed to be reporting."

Sent from Heidelberg Germany from Stars & Stripes & entitled "We Aren't All the Borg":

Americans shoulder blame

Americans should stop blaming the president for all the woes in America; Americans are to blame (“See the glass half full instead,” letter, May 18).

I agree with the letter writer that we brought this on ourselves, and here is how we did it:

When nations allow education to become the least of priorities, the masses become no more than mindless drones. In the United States, we find it cheaper to spend billions on defense and argue over a few million on the education budget.

Without the ability for critical thinking, citizens are left unable to question authority and are willing to be led blindly, believing any rhetoric that their leaders put forward regardless of how far-fetched: A Third World country, more than 5,000 miles away, with no nuclear weapons, no long range missiles, no air force, and no navy is a threat to the United States.

Quit treating politics like religion. The politicians are not gods. People tend to vote the way their parents voted. If your parents were Democrats, it does not mean you have to be; likewise for Republicans. Be more cynical — just because politicians say it does not make it gospel. Don’t vote for the candidate because of your affiliation. Choose the best candidate for the job.

By far the most dangerous action by a nation is to allow or encourage the intermingling of religion and politics. God is neither a registered Republican nor, for that matter, Democrat. When nations intermingle religion and politics, any course of action is justified by their god, regardless of how evil.

Our current president claims God told him to attack Iraq. Frightening, isn’t it?

Gary Greene
Baghdad

Here’s a right-on treatise…

http://www.tim-robbins.com/achillwindisblowing.htm

The executive director of Texans for Justice said Judge Hart's ruling yesterday regarding Tom DeLay(he is a Democratic Judge but 'chosen by the Republican lawyers for TRMPAC) said that Judge Hart's ruling yesterday shows that further 'Federal Investigation' of Delay is needed.
The problem with that is that the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, would have to order the investigation and even if DeLay should be indicted and convicted in Federal Court, guess which court DeLay could then appeal to, Casey?
You got it. Prescilla Owens and the Fifth Circuit to the best of my knowledge. Interesting how Repubs seem to have rigged the system.

Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington stated that "DeLay engaged in a conspiracy to violate Texas campaign laws in order to gerymander Texas congressional districts." Texans know full well what happened and how some of our best Dem State Representatives who had previously won their state races by large margins (my rep Debra Danberg who was wildly popular and won her previous elections by 60+ % suddenly lost when she and others were suddenly pushed into strongly Republicna Districts and this $500,000 in illegal corporate money was funneled to Republican state legislative races. $500,000 is a staggering sum to spend to win state legislative seats that at the time only paid a salary of $7,500.

My guess is that Sloan is saying that DeLay should be prosecuted under the federal rackateering laws. That leads me to believe, which is what I have heard down here is that Ronnie Earl, the Travis Cty (Austin) D.A. is having difficulty finding a nexus to DeLay's activities to Travis Cty and difficuly getting co-operation from the Republican Ft. Bend (Sugarland Texas) D.A. office to indict and prosecute DeLay in the State District courts. Anyone else know more about this?

An entreaty to get Americans to enlist
Sheryl McCarthy

May 26, 2005

Charlie Rangel's at it again.

The New York congressman two years ago assailed the hypocrisy of the war in Iraq by demanding that, if the Bush administration and Congress believed in the war so much, they should reinstate the draft. Now he is urging the president to appeal to Americans to enlist in the military.

"At the very least the president should spend some of his political capital and publicly appeal to Americans to volunteer for service in Iraq," Rangel has been saying lately. "He should go on television and explain why this war is important enough for parents to put their sons and daughters in harm's way."

Rangel's remarks are partly tongue-in-cheek, coming from a man who has opposed the war since before it started and hasn't cast a single vote in support of it. But they also are a dare. They come after the Army reported lowering its minimum required active duty from 24 to 15 months, the lowest in history, in an attempt to lure hard-to-get recruits. The prospect of dying in Iraq has made recruitment so difficult that the Army expects to have only 10 percent of the 80,000 troops it will need to replace those in Iraq and Afghanistan next year in place by this fall.

And the Army's desperation to meet its quotas has driven recruiters to sign up people who are mentally ill, who have police records, who use drugs and who can't pass the military aptitude exams without cheating, according to The New York Times.

Four American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Tuesday, bringing the total to 1,644 since the war started, more than 12,000 wounded and 20,000 Iraqi civilians dead, the Associated Press reported, although some put the last figure much higher.

Despite the much ballyhooed election and the installation of an interim government, more than 600 people, including 58 U.S. military personnel, have been killed since Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari announced his new government last month. If Bush still thinks all this carnage is justified, then why not personally call on young people to enlist as their patriotic duty, instead of counting on the desperation of their being out of work and doing it for the cash bonuses, steady paychecks and college educations?

A lot of Americans have bitten the bullet and accepted our involvement in Iraq, which Rangel compares to driving a car into the rental return space and having the spikes pop up, so you can't get out. But revelations about how we got there continue to insult our intelligence.

A British memo written in the summer of 2002 about a meeting of Tony Blair's top foreign-policy advisers reports that Bush was looking for a way to remove Saddam Hussein by military action months before Congress voted to authorize it and while assuring the public that he was seeking an alternative to war.

At a time when we feel stuck in Iraq, Rangel's challenge to the president shakes us out of our doldrums, reminding us that this war is no less hypocritical just because Iraq has a somewhat better government.

"If the president cannot convince the American people to make the financial and human sacrifice . . . then he should refer this policy back to the UN, where it belonged in the first place," Rangel told me.

He says the United States has done as much as it can in Iraq with guns and tanks, and that it should go to the United Nations and try to involve international diplomats who want to see a peaceful Iraq. Once the terrorists see that the international community, not just the United States, is guiding things, order might be restored, Rangel says.

I'm not nearly so hopeful as Rangel that the UN can close the Pandora's box we have opened over there. But he's right to remind us of the duplicity behind the mess we've made.

Sheryl McCarthy's e-mail address is mccart731@aol.com

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.

madamedefarge and mOnKeY,

they are absolutely correct on this. Furthermore, if you look, you can see how they have stacked the republicans from the tiniest school board, village, level all the way up through the election boards, the courts, and the whole infrastructure we use in our daily lives.

Progressives have either been lazy or unaware. It's never to late to fight back. If we don't fight back, it will get worse.

Bush's Calvin College surprise
by Jim Wallis

As I've traveled the country this spring - 82 events, 48 cities, and hundreds of media interviews since January - I've witnessed a new movement of moderate and progressive religious voices challenging the monologue of the Religious Right.

An extremely narrow and aggressively partisan expression of right-wing Republican religion has controlled the debate on faith and politics in the public square for years. But that is no longer true.

At packed book events around the country these days, I often make an announcement that elicits a tumultuous response: "The monologue of the Religious Right is finally over, and a new dialogue has begun!" Smiles light up the faces of thousands of people as they break out in thunderous applause.

That new dialogue was visible recently at Calvin College. Karl Rove, seeking a friendly venue for a commencement speech in Michigan, approached Calvin and offered President Bush as the speaker. The college, which had already invited Nicholas Wolterstorff of Yale to deliver the speech, hastily disinvited him and welcomed the president. But the White House apparently was not counting on the reaction of students and faculty. Rove expected the evangelical Christian college in the dependable "red" area of western Michigan to be a safe place. He was wrong.

The day the president was to speak, an ad featuring a letter signed by one-third of Calvin's faculty and staff ran in The Grand Rapids Press. Noting that "we seek open and honest dialogue about the Christian faith and how it is best expressed in the political sphere," the letter said that "we see conflicts between our understanding of what Christians are called to do and many of the policies of your administration."

The letter asserted that administration policies have "launched an unjust and unjustified war in Iraq," "taken actions that favor the wealthy of our society and burden the poor, " "harmed creation and have not promoted long-term stewardship of our natural environment," and "fostered intolerance and divisiveness and has often failed to listen to those with whom it disagrees." It concluded: "Our passion for these matters arises out of the Christian faith that we share with you. We ask you, Mr. President, to re-examine your policies in light of our God-given duty to pursue justice with mercy...." One faculty member told a reporter, "We are not Lynchburg. We are not right wing; we're not left wing. We think our faith trumps political ideology."

On commencement day, according to news reports, about a quarter of the 900 graduates wore "God is not a Republican or a Democrat" buttons pinned to their gowns.

The events at Calvin, along with the growing crowds at our events around the country, are visible signs that the Religious Right does not speak for all Christians, even all evangelical Christians. What I hear, from one end of this country to the other, is how tired we are of ideological religion and how hungry we are for prophetic faith. The students and faculty at Calvin College are the most recent sign of that hunger.

From Sojourners at www.sojo.net

This last week, Bill Maher's comments on his show "Real Time" about the Army's declining enlistment rate so riled Alaskan Congressman Spencer Bachus that he called Maher's comments "treasonous" and demanded HBO to take Maher's show off the air. HBO declined on his suggestion.

This is Maher's response, found on Arianna's blog:

First, I had never heard of Congressman Bachus before this. Now lots of people have heard of him. You're welcome, Congressman, glad I could help get your Q rating up.

By the way, are we sure he's really a Congressman? Maybe he's just a guy with a fax machine. You know how fact checking goes these days.

I could go on and on, but this is too ridiculous, so I'll just say this: I'm not a congressman, I'm a comedian. There's nothing I can really do to help or hurt our troops (although anyone who's watched my shows or read my books in the last twelve years knows I'm a pretty ardent supporter of the military).

But a congressman, there's someone who can actually DO SOMETHING to help our troops. In fact, a case could be made that it's a lot more treasonous for someone in his position to be wasting his time yelling at a comedian. Shouldn't he be training his outrage at such problems as troops not having enough armor? Wouldn't that ACTUALLY support our troops more? And citizens of this country who claim to support our troops should write this man and tell him GET BACK TO WORK! DO SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO SOLDIERS IN IRAQ!

And by the way, these "comments" were part of a longer, scripted comedy piece in the modest proposal tradition. I can see why administration supporters would want to deflect attention away from the gist of the piece, which was this: now that we can't meet our recruiting goals, maybe it's the people who were so gung ho for this war to begin with who should step up and go fight it. But of course it's always easier to distract people.

Finally, I would direct the Congressman to chapter 3 of my book "When You Ride Alone, You Ride with bin Laden." The accompanying poster shows a soldier, a cop, a fireman, and a teacher, and says, "We Say They're Our Heroes...But We Pay Them Like Chumps."

Maybe that's something else he could look into when he gets done with me.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, EVERYONE!!!

Blogger MOnKey...

Has a nice ring to it.

Happy to see all primates are having their voices heard...no matter how primitive...upon the DCP.

MOnkey see...MOnKey stand up and fight.

MOnKey no like crooked politicians.

Whooo whoooo whoooo aiiiieee eee eee eee!

Banana anyone?

Ape Man
The Kinks

I think I’m so sophisticated
’cos I’m living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybody’s multiplying
Till they’re walking round like flies man

So I’m no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man ’cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man

I think I’m so educated and I’m so civilized
’cos I’m a strict vegetarian
But with the over-population and inflation and starvation
And the crazy politicians

I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore and make like an ape man

I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man
Oh, I’m an ape man I’m a king kong man, I'm a voodoo man, oh I’m ape ape man
’cos compared to the sun that sits in the sky

Compared to the clouds as they roll by
Compared to the bugs and the spiders and flies
I am an ape man
In man’s evolution he has created the cities and
The motor traffic rumble, but give me half a chance
And I’d be taking off my clothes and living in the jungle

’cos the only time that I feel at ease
Is swinging up and down in a coconut tree
Oh what a life of luxury to be like an ape man

I’m an ape, I’m an ape ape man, Oh I’m an ape man
I’m a king kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
Oh I’m an ape man
I look out the window, but I can’t see the sky
’cos the air pollution is fogging up my eyes
I want to get out of this city alive
And make like an ape man

Come and love me, be my ape man girl
And we will be so happy in my ape man world

I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man, Oh I’m an ape man I’m a king kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
Oh I’m an ape man

I’ll be your tarzan, you’ll be my jane
I’ll keep you warm and you’ll keep me sane
we’ll sit in the trees and eat bananas all day
Just like an ape man

I’m an ape man, I’m an ape ape man, Oh I’m an ape man
I’m a king kong man, I’m a voo-doo man
Oh I’m an ape man.

I don’t feel safe in this world no more
I don’t want to die in a nuclear war
I want to sail away to a distant shore
And make like an ape man.

ARMY CONFIRMS ABUSES OF KORAN:

By Josh White and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 27, 2005; Page A01

Pentagon officials said yesterday that investigators have identified five incidents of military guards and an interrogator "mishandling" the Koran at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but characterized the episodes as minor and said most occurred before specific rules on the treatment of Muslim holy items were issued.

Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood, commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said investigators have looked into 13 specific allegations of Koran desecration at the prison dating to early 2002 and have determined eight of them to be unfounded, lacking credibility or the result of accidental touching of the holy book. Of the five cases of mishandling, three were "very likely" deliberate and two were "very likely accidental," he said. But Hood declined to provide details, citing an ongoing investigation.

[edited out advertising]

"I want to assure you that we are committed to respecting the cultural dignity of the Koran and the detainees' practice of faith," Brig. Gen. Jay W. Hood said. (By Jonathan Ernst -- Reuters)

FBI Records From ACLU
Records summarizing interviews with detainees were released by the government to the ACLU on May 19 and made public on Wednesday.

Hood's comments marked the first time the Pentagon has confirmed mistreatment of the Muslim book at Guantanamo Bay. Captives and some military personnel there have made claims of Koran desecration, but in a statement last week, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence T. Di Rita said the Defense Department had received no credible claims of such abuse. Nevertheless, he said, officials were reviewing the allegations.

Hood took pains to deny a now-retracted report in Newsweek magazine's May 9 issue that said officials had confirmed a detainee's claim that a guard had flushed a Koran down a toilet. The White House, the Pentagon and others have linked that report to riots overseas that left 16 people dead.

The news conference came a day after the American Civil Liberties Union released summaries of memos from FBI agents at Guantanamo Bay that reported detainee allegations of Koran desecration. Hood played down the mistreatment as a vestige of Guantanamo Bay's early days and said it occurred without any systemic frequency.

MORE:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/26/AR2005052601220.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

"So the newly declassified FBI documents showing allegations of U.S. guards abusing the Koran have made a huge splash in the media, right?
Uh, no.
There were only a few mentions of it on television yesterday."

DiAnne, I'm shocked. I can't believe the MSM would be so unpatriotic as to privilege American Idol over events that are destroying our democracy. It must be an isolated incident.

Josh Marshall on why Dems need to stand up NOW and say "We stopped Bush's attempt to phase out Social Security."

I couldn't agree more.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_05_22.php#005745

When Arnold ran against Gray Davis he made a point of telling Ca voters that he rejected Bush and his policies which are not in sinc with Ca sentiments. Think again Californians:

Bush aide joins governor
By Gary Delsohn -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 27, 2005
Mindy Fletcher, a former aide to President Bush dating back to his days as Texas governor, is joining the Schwarzenegger administration as deputy chief of staff, officials confirmed Thursday.

Have others here read or heard this Ap story and is it correct? If so the Bolton nomination could unravel this weekend which could lead to the recess appointment we discussed last night:

"Why do almost no newspapers today include the fact that Sen. Thune says he will vote against the Bolton nomination (broken by AP and confirmed by ABC News)?"

Progressives have either been lazy or unaware.
Posted by: sparrow at May 27, 2005 10:43 AM

We thought America was forever the greatest country in the world, invincible, uncorruptable, morally perfect. There is pride, and then there is a superiority complex - when people get smug, they cease their vigilance. We became more focused on how many built-in appliances we could acquire.

Ira:

Arnold is in trouble in our state and that's why he's called in the big guns.

Lately, he's been announcing his out of Capitol visits less than a day in advance to avoid the huge protests that have lately disturbed his appearances. We staged a big one in SF a couple of months ago, which stopped traffic downtown for over two hours during rush hour.

He tried delaying announcement of a visit yesterday in San Jose with a blurb less than twelve hours prior the event, to prevent protesters from planning in advance. No luck. Protesters showed up anyway.

Don't know about your state Ira, but in ours, when you get policemen, firemen, nurses and teachers mad, that's pretty much the ball game. Arnold is trying to bust up the unions, and now there's talk to organize and consolidate all of their unions into one. Sounds like a general strike in the realm of what happens in France when the government blows it.

Our guv is seriously in pocket with big corporate interests who want to take over, re-district and take the state for what its worth. These are the same folks who want to call a special election to do the same--remember RECALL?. Most Californians are NOT buying it. Not this time.

I am sitting in my office in a government building in the Civic Center section of SF. Condoleeza is coming to town, and there are SWAT teams on our roofs. If there's any day to feel like you want to bust out and scream its this one.

And that's why I blog.

Posted by: Victoria ellen at May 27, 2005 11:27 AM

I agree. Furthermore, they need to shout out how they've FOUGHT for the average American--fought against the credit companies (those who didn't can beer the brunt of their poor vote), fought against one party rule (filibuster), fought corruption of our democratic processes (election shinnanigans.)

Get the picture, dems? Stand up and be proud and FIGHT FOR THE LITTLE GUY and who cares if they call it "class politics". It's what it already is right now--they just hide it behind all their corruption.

Fe: the evening news showed huge crowds of protestors of nurses and teachers last night that looked massive on tv much like the protests we saw in the 1960s.
Have Californians thought of starting a Recall Petition against Arnold? What sweet irony that would be. I will be happy to help you in San Diego this summer to help collect signatures.
Any credibility to Warren Beaty running and just having Arnold unpopular does not equate to having a winning Dem candidate. I wouldn't be against Gray Davis making a come back with the slogan "I told you so" but in realty that won't happen.

Coalition of Citizen Groups asks Congress to file "Resolution of Inquiry," the first step in determining if President Bush behaved illegally (should be impeached) in run-up to Iraq war.

http://rawstory.com/exclusives/alexandrovna/coalition_inquiry_downing_street_memo_526

May 27, 2005
Just Shut It Down
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

London

Shut it down. Just shut it down.

I am talking about the war-on-terrorism P.O.W. camp at Guantánamo Bay. Just shut it down and then plow it under. It has become worse than an embarrassment. I am convinced that more Americans are dying and will die if we keep the Gitmo prison open than if we shut it down. So, please, Mr. President, just shut it down.

If you want to appreciate how corrosive Guantánamo has become for America's standing abroad, don't read the Arab press. Don't read the Pakistani press. Don't read the Afghan press. Hop over here to London or go online and just read the British press! See what our closest allies are saying about Gitmo. And when you get done with that, read the Australian press and the Canadian press and the German press.

It is all a variation on the theme of a May 8 article in The Observer of London that begins, "An American soldier has revealed shocking new details of abuse and sexual torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay in the first high-profile whistle-blowing account to emerge from inside the top-secret base." Google the words "Guantánamo Bay and Australia" and what comes up is an Australian ABC radio report that begins: "New claims have emerged that prisoners at Guantánamo Bay are being tortured by their American captors, and the claims say that Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib are among the victims."

Just another day of the world talking about Guantánamo Bay.

Why care? It's not because I am queasy about the war on terrorism. It is because I want to win the war on terrorism. And it is now obvious from reports in my own paper and others that the abuse at Guantánamo and within the whole U.S. military prison system dealing with terrorism is out of control. Tell me, how is it that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody so far? Heart attacks? This is not just deeply immoral, it is strategically dangerous.

I can explain it best by analogy. For several years now I have argued that Israel needed to get out of the West Bank and Gaza, and behind a wall, as fast as possible. Not because the Palestinians are right and Israel wrong. It's because Israel today is surrounded by three large trends. The first is a huge population explosion happening all across the Arab world. The second is an explosion of the worst interpersonal violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the history of the conflict, which has only recently been defused by a cease-fire. And the third is an explosion of Arabic language multimedia outlets - from the Internet to Al Jazeera.

What was happening around Israel at the height of the intifada was that the Arab multimedia explosion was taking the images of that intifada explosion and feeding them to the Arab population explosion, melding in the minds of a new generation of Arabs and Muslims that their enemies were J.I.A. - "Jews, Israel and America." That is an enormously toxic trend, and I hope Israel's withdrawal from Gaza will help deprive it of oxygen.

I believe the stories emerging from Guantánamo are having a similar toxic effect on us - inflaming sentiments against the U.S. all over the world and providing recruitment energy on the Internet for those who would do us ill.

Husain Haqqani, a thoughtful Pakistani scholar now teaching at Boston University, remarked to me: "When people like myself say American values must be emulated and America is a bastion of freedom, we get Guantánamo Bay thrown in our faces. When we talk about the America of Jefferson and Hamilton, people back home say to us: 'That is not the America we are dealing with. We are dealing with the America of imprisonment without trial.' "

Guantánamo Bay is becoming the anti-Statue of Liberty. If we have a case to be made against any of the 500 or so inmates still in Guantánamo, then it is high time we put them on trial, convict as many possible (which will not be easy because of bungled interrogations) and then simply let the rest go home or to a third country. Sure, a few may come back to haunt us. But at least they won't be able to take advantage of Guantánamo as an engine of recruitment to enlist thousands more. I would rather have a few more bad guys roaming the world than a whole new generation.

"This is not about being for or against the war," said Michael Posner, the executive director of Human Rights First, which is closely following this issue. "It is about doing it right. If we are going to transform the Middle East, we have to be law-abiding and uphold the values we want them to embrace - otherwise it is not going to work."

My, my, my... the rumblings of impeachment begin. Well, the Constitution does outline a process to address deliberate misinformation from our leaders, doesn't it?

What a wonderful document. I recently had my dining room wallpapered in an eternally repeating pattern of the U.S. Constitution. It's wonderful, unless you suffer from any retinal weakness, in which case it can cause blindness. It's like Viagra in that way.

And isn't it funny to think that the Constitution is like Viagra? There's something very important there, if I could just think what it is...

Well, blogosphere patriots, I'll be back to visit again.

I just wanted to tell you all what a remarkable job you're doing in your defsense of democracy. Keep the faith. The All-Across-The-USA resistance movement continues...

Viva La People!

Are there any ties to the infamous Blackwell, who will be running for Ohio Governor, in this story?

"May 27, 2005 11:48 AM ETOhio governor says workers' comp director is resigning in coin scandaladvertisementRelated information E-mail this article Print-friendly version"

All Associated Press News

Have Californians thought of starting a Recall Petition against Arnold? What sweet irony that would be. I will be happy to help you in San Diego this summer to help collect signatures.
Any credibility to Warren Beaty running and just having Arnold unpopular does not equate to having a winning Dem candidate. I wouldn't be against Gray Davis making a come back with the slogan "I told you so" but in realty that won't happen.

Posted by: Ira at May 27, 2005 11:54 AM

Ira:

Warren "indicated" in a speech before the graduates last week, but that could just be a trial balloon. Would we be better off IF Warren ran? Don't know.

There are some fine candidates up against Arnold: Phil Angelides, and Steve Westly, though I think Westly is rethinking his candidacy. The most daunting thing, of course is the money its going to take to run against Arnold in the event he plans to run for gov again. Arnold has a BIG MONEY machine, amplified by his star power.

If there's anything these protests are providing, its to diminish the stars from people's eyes which clouded their judgement two years ago during the recall. And even then, it will take a money machine of our own to campaign well and win against powerful corporate interests which are behind the Schwarzenegger "mystique".

From Asia to the Middle East, Muslims protest American abuse of the Koran:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050527/ap_on_re_mi_ea/quran_protests_1;_ylt=AvTFxSqylRELWe8gejDucNM3NiUi;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

The disastrous leadership of Rummy and Bush increases the danger to our soldiers every day.

Our only chance of victory lies in getting rid of the most pathetic, dangerous, dishonest leadership this country has ever seen.

Support our troops: Fire Bush and Rumsfeld.

The sad truth is that Bush cannot be impeached until the Democrats reclaim the House of Representatives. Delay's House will never impeach him for any authentic wrongdoing.

I don't know that that's necessarily true, Cyrano... but if so, then I guess we better get busy on 2006, hadn't we?

If this were a less ideological House, it would not be true. But on the right, this group is made up of uber-fundies and neocons. Truth, justice and the American way are not high on their list of priorities.

The following comments from the article Cyrano posted above just jumped out at me as worth repeating:

Husain Haqqani, a thoughtful Pakistani scholar now teaching at Boston University, remarked to me: "When people like myself say American values must be emulated and America is a bastion of freedom, we get Guantánamo Bay thrown in our faces. When we talk about the America of Jefferson and Hamilton, people back home say to us: 'That is not the America we are dealing with. We are dealing with the America of imprisonment without trial.' "

Guantánamo Bay is becoming the anti-Statue of Liberty.

...Just shut it down and then plow it under. It has become worse than an embarrassment.

...they won't be able to take advantage of Guantánamo as an engine of recruitment to enlist thousands more.

********

A message of "don't do as I do, do as I say" ... and we all know how effective that is as a teaching philosophy.

Impeachment would be impossibe with these thugs in power,however I would appreciate any dem to get going on a special prosecuter to investigate the prison abuse and other scandals that are abound. After all,Bush came to Washington to change the tone...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Fe, loved the Bill Maher piece. Thanks. Haven't had time for the Huffington Post lately.

Patti --

1) Nothing is impossible.

2) Whether or not impeachment is realistic under the current partisan hack leadership of Congress, the fact that proceedings have been initiated (the Resolution of Inquiry is a first step in the impeachment process) is significant, and indicates that the public may become aware, on some level, just how far Bush has gone to implement his ideology. Therefore, it warrants our time and discussion.

From Asia to the Middle East, Muslims protest American abuse of the Koran:
Posted by: Victoria ellen at May 27, 2005 12:17 PM

Oh, great. I feel much safer now, don't you? This torture thing was a great idea!

If nothing else tells the whole Muslim world that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld are on a jihad of their own, this dessecration of the Muslim holy book does.

Great leadership, guys! i can't understand why the rest of the world isn't following!

The Constitution is an incredible device, Impeachment is an empowering tool contained within it.

The truly awesome power of the Constitution is to reflect the will of the Nation, of the people. If enough assemble and demand change, The Constitution encourages, protects, and guarentees this.

If enough gather and demand the investigation of the House leader for actions unbefitting a Sitting member of the House let alone its leader, it will occur. the same goes for any sitting member of elected Government, right up to the President. There is no escape clause.

The Constitution does not empower Government, it empowers People. You and I and everyone else that cares to excercise those Enumerated Rights and Freedoms. It is is written for ditch diggers and Homeless, for farmers and teachers and Unionized workers. It says nobody can take away what your creator has given to begin with.

It is up to us to activate the mechanisms within that document. Its a piece of paper until somebody gives purpose, cause and justification.
Then it becomes the instruement to change the Direction and the face of this Nation.